The STEM Foundation

The STEM Foundation is a national model generating passionate support for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in Public Education: Every Student, Every Day!

In 2006, concerned leaders from the private sector approached the Kennewick, Pasco and Richland School Districts with a visionary idea -creating an innovative STEM high school specifically designed to prepare students with the skills necessary to succeed in the modern workplace. In 2008, the Washington State STEM Education Foundation was formed in support of this revolutionary school, Delta High School, with the mission to create a substantial and sustainable impact on the quality of STEM education in the Mid-Columbia.

Known as the STEM Foundation, we support a view that STEM literacy is a foundational skill which matters for all careers, not just the technology workforce. STEM builds critical thinking abilities because it addresses how we view and experience the world around us. Especially at a time when global challenges in water, climate, and energy require broad and comprehensive solutions across policy and technology, proficiency in English, mathematics, technology, and science, as well as literature, history, and the arts will be essential. Our future workforce must be comfortable with ideas and abstractions, analysis and synthesis. Gaining a STEM proficiency provides the foundation for these skills, and also helps build the flexibility to adapt quickly to frequent changes in the labor market that are expected as global shifts in the economy become faster.